United Nations, New York, USA, May 17 2017 – Peter Diamandis, XPRIZE Foundation Chairman speaks to journalists during the General Assembly Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Action Event on Innovation and Connectivity today at the UN Headquarters in New York.The General Assembly held a high-level event aiming to provide Member States with an opportunity to engage with leading innovators and technology companies on how new technologies can support the successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Photo: Luiz Rampelotto/EuropaNewswire

The Chairman of XPrize Foundation, Peter Diamandis, today (17 May) said “we are heading towards a time where the education of the son or daughter of a billionaire and the education of the poorest child in the planet would be identical, delivered by artificial intelligence.”

Speaking to reporters after a General Assembly High-level Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Action Event on Innovation, Diamandis also said “there will be a time when the best healthcare in the world for the rich and the poor is identical, because these things are the directions that we are heading.”

Diamandis said “the most important change that’s occurring over this next decade, the change that people are not talking about, is this massive global connectivity that is coming our way, both terrestrial with 5G networks, in the stratosphere with balloons, and in lower orbits by a number of satellite communications.”

United Nations, New York, USA, May 17 2017 – Astro Teller, Chief Executive Officer of Google X speaks to journalists during the General Assembly Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Action Event on Innovation and Connectivity today at the UN Headquarters in New York.The General Assembly held a high-level event aiming to provide Member States with an opportunity to engage with leading innovators and technology companies on how new technologies can support the successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Photo: Luiz Rampelotto/EuropaNewswire

Another participant, Dr. Astro Teller, Chief Executive Officer of Google X, said “the ability to try new technologies out in a country, in any country, makes that country and testing in that country much more attractive to technologists. So, to the extent that, you know, our self-driving cars, our self-flying vehicles, our balloons, the things that we do in healthcare, can be safely and appropriately tried and explored in a particular country when there are often various reasons why they can’t yet in this country. That makes it appealing to us and we actually have done a lot of out testing of various things outside of the United States exactly for this reason.”

United Nations, New York, USA, May 17 2017 – Justine Cassell, Associate Dean for Technology Strategy and Impact at Carnegie Mellon University speaks to journalists during the General Assembly Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Action Event on Innovation and Connectivity today at the UN Headquarters in New York.The General Assembly held a high-level event aiming to provide Member States with an opportunity to engage with leading innovators and technology companies on how new technologies can support the successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Photo: Luiz Rampelotto/EuropaNewswire

For her part, Dr. Justine Cassell from Carnegie Mellon University said “not just connectivity between satellites and cell phones, but connectivity between people; communications, relationships that are strong and viable, and that we take those into account as we develop technology that therefore does not replace humans in their job but collaborates with them so that the technology does what it does best, and the human does what he or she does best.”

During the event, leading innovators from the major corporations of the world interacted with member states on how emerging technologies can transform efforts aimed at the successful implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

The adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development saw world leaders commit to 17 comprehensive, integrated and ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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